With this news, Cuba has surpassed 70 qualified athletes and is meeting the experts’ predictions of around seventy athletes with a ticket to the summer event, the lowest number for a Cuban delegation since the first time the Japanese capital hosted the Games in 1964.
The sports newspaper Jit pointed out that both swimmers received two ‘wild cards’ awarded by FINA on Thursday for universality to compete in the 200- and 400-meter freestyle contests in the case of Gamez, while Vega will take part in the 200-meter butterfly and 400-meter individual medley event.
‘We are very happy, it is the news that I was looking forward to, another dream come true, my second games, the greatest achievement of an athlete, I feel blessed by this great opportunity,’ the 24-year-old free-style swimmer told Jit.
Gamez, who currently trains in a ‘bubble’ condition at the Baraguá Swimming Pool Complex, has not been able to compete since late 2019, when he participated in the world cups in Kazan and Doha, after participating in the Pan-American Games in Lima, Peru.
As for Vega, he learned of his designation in Kazan, where he has been on a scholarship at the International Swimming Center since early this year, and from there he will travel to Tokyo on July 16.
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